Google SketchUp…
All available from the Google Warehouse:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=143e6d493f9810869adfe3796c35d46d
If anyone has SketchUp Pro or another way to get high quality renders, it would also be awesome to have .jpg versions available here to download somewhere.
IS there anyway to generate STEP files from eagle files? I agree that STEP is more standard format.
First time I’ve heard of STEP files… Is there a good free/OSS package that reads/creates this format? If not, I would disagree this is the wrong direction if GHI is trying to appeal more to the OSS/OSH crowd.
I am not sure what open source crowed use and I am not a 3D expert but I tend to hear of STEP format often.
I don’t know anyone who is not a pro engineer that uses anything other than SketchUp. My quick searches on the STEP format seem to indicate that it’s a common format between the pro engineering CAD programs. Perhaps Autodesk 123D will support it but it’s still beta. Perhaps there’s a plugin somewhere for SketchUp that will let it read/write STEP but the only one I could find was expensive. I’m afraid if you go with STEP you’ll end up alienating everyone that doesn’t have access to a pro CAD/CAM package.
This has to be open source friendly! The main thing from this is allowing users to use the models to design enclosures and then be able to generate files fro laser cutters. Can this be done in Sketch up?
Hmm… Don’t know. That’s unchartered territory for me.
At one company I work for, that makes electronic water usage meters, they use SolidWorks or SolidEdge, can’t remember which, probably because they have a Dimension 3D printer.
At the other company I work for, that makes cash dispensing machines and smart cash counting safes, they exclusively use SketchUp Pro. They get all their metal parts laser cut. Will ask them how they get from SketchUp to laser cut.
I was under the impression that STEP was only used for 3D printers… :-[
@ ianlee74:
Does Pro do better renders? The free one already does very nice renders. But if Pro does do better renders then I can go and render them at my client.
Edit: SketchUp can produce COLLADA files, which seems to be a semi portable format. See:
I’ve never used Pro, but it’s my understanding that it has full raytrace rendering built-in. So, we should be able to get realistic renderings such as:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/synapsesg/axon-mcu-the-future-of-net-hardware
I have seen somewhere a process that someone came up with for doing this with the free version that used a combination of 3 or 4 different utilities to eventually come up with a rendering. I haven’t taken the time to try it yet, though.
According to: http://sketchup.google.com/product/whygopro.html there isn’t any rendering diffs between free and Pro. Mainly export/import and modelign tools.
There are some raytracing plugings, none of which is cheap a presume…
Looks like you’re right. Some of the renderings I’ve seen were apparently the result of a plugin and not just Pro. However, it’s likely that anyone that would have the need for pro would likewise have a need for high quality renderings and may also have the plugin.